Global Issues

Sri Lanka

• Estimated 10,000 and 15,000 children were subjected to commercial sexual exploitation within Sri Lanka in 2009.

• Source and, to a much lesser extent, a destination for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.

• Sri Lankan women promised jobs as domestic workers in other countries forced to work in brothels, mainly in Singapore.

• Small number of Sri Lankan women are forced into prostitution in the Maldives.

• Within the country, women and children are subjected to sex trafficking in brothels.

• A small number of women from Thailand, China, and countries in South Asia, Europe, and the former Soviet Union may be subjected to forced prostitution in Sri Lanka.

• Allegations that police and other officials accepted bribes to permit brothels to operate; some of the brothels exploited trafficking victims.

Advocacy:

• Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers is a coalition of sex worker groups and projects working on issues of HIV and human rights for female, male and transgender sex workers across Asia and the Pacific.

Sources: U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2011; Sex Work Activists, Allies, and You